Tuesday is French Catch Day: Corne! Isreal! Les Blousons Noir! Husberg! Spartacus!!

Jean Corne & Ischa Israel vs. Marcel Mannevau & Claude Gessat 4/21/60 pt1 pt2

SR: 2/3 falls match going 45 minutes. It‘s Les Blousons Noir, venerable rudo team made up of Mannevau and Gessat. This was probably the first in very specific brand of French pro wrestling, a very fast paced light weight tag mixing high end wrestling with high end heel work. And it didn‘t even seem like something particularily new to this crowd. The workrate these guys had was just insane, going 45 minutes without really letting up, all while running the ropes so fast, bumping hard, working ultra tight pin attempts and hitting the worlds greatest european uppercuts. While Mannevau and Gessat were clearly indulging in outrageous heel antics they also came to wrestle, there are some slick takedowns and Gessat busts out a sick spinning jacknife bomb that felt like it belonged in a 90s New Japan match. Mannevau is the more animated of the two Blousons and he really looks like a cheapshot king here and I loved all his silent film antics with the tag rope, he was like Regal on speed. Most of this the Blousons backing the faces to their corner or locking in holds before raining down punches and kicks, before some violent retaliations and while mixing in fast rope running exchanges and straight wrestling. It is a really effective formula and these guys are kings at it. There were also well integrated ref spots including Mannevau stepping on the referee, and there is a deceptive near-finish where the referee uppercuts one of the faces.  Israel is the more animated of the faces and he has a real knack for infusing simple things with energy, at one point he comes in and does this neat spinning takedown and then some nasty knuckle grinding. The knuckle grinding really wasn‘t anything super difficult athletic-wise, something any random yokel wrestler could do, but the way he executed it he made it look like he was about to rip a guys leg off. The ending is a bit weird, they are 1:1 and resting in the corners after a fall while the announcer talks about Cognac or something, I am going to pretend it simply ended in a 45 minute draw, even though they delivered two great finishes and showed no signs of fatigue, this was a metric ton of high end wrestling although probably not that special considering they likely did this match 3 times a week.

MD: We get about 45 of this, two clear falls before they run out of TV time. There seemed to be some confusion up front on them getting the time when they did to begin with. This is our first look at Les Blousons Noirs, and while this one has been out there before, I don't think it is now and it's well worth watching. The commentator has no idea which is Gessat and which is Manneveau, but if I have it right, Maneveau is an amazing cheapshot artist, just a manic cheater of the sort that seems get cheapshots in at every opportunity, even when it'd be more effective to not antagonize the referee. Gessat really impressed me, bumping big, looking credible and tough, hanging with Corne and Israel. Just a really dynamic heel and the two of them together made a good unit. We'd seen Corne once in 59 and we'll see him a lot more, but I thought he looked a lot better here, already fulfilling the promise from the previous year. Lots of cleanly hit, dynamic spots, good fire (though not as good as Israel) and plenty of charisma. There was one moment where he bumped himself into being choked between the ropes that seemed to defy physics. Despite the length, between the quickness of the action, the frequent shifts between heat and revenge, and a healthy dose of comedy with the ref, who became more unkempt and unclothed as the match went on, the time passed quickly and enjoyably. We have another tag with these heels and one Gessat singles match I'm particularly interested in.

Robert Le Boulch vs. Jean Martin 4/29/60

SR: We get about 30 seconds of this before Le Boulch taps out to a spinning toe hold from Martin. No real sense of the match but I dig a spinning toe hold finish.

MD: There was something to see here but we didn't get to see it unfortunately. This starts with a guy on the floor and ends a minute later with him selling a leg and eating a spinning toe-hold. We didn't even get the bump. Ah well. In between matches they show three cartoon drawing which really do sum up French Catch, a guy getting monkey flipped with one foot, that bridging, cross-legged headscissors (like Mil Mascaras), and a forearm right to the face. That's 57-60 French Catch in a nutshell.

Spartacus vs. Eric Husberg 4/29/60

MD: Spartacus is exactly what you'd expect at first sight, a muscular guy dressed like a Gladiator. It's funny because Bernaert was working the Kirk Douglas resemblance, but I imagine this was the other promotion? Still, you'd think there would be money with these two facing off. Husberg, we've seen before, and he's dark-haired with occasionally beady eyes and a smugness when he escapes a hold or gets one over on his opponent, but after seeing so much Bernaert, I still somehow thought he'd be the face in this. I was wrong. Spartacus brought a lot to the table, legitimately good wrestling on the mat, intensity in key moments, power moves (the flipping cradle release power bomb we haven't seen in a while, along with slams and a backbreaker), and some real stylist escapes, half of which looked amazing and half of which looked unsteady. Whether it was true or not, you got the sense that neither man could keep the other down for long. Husberg would use more inside shots or cheap takedowns out of the ropes, but it wasn't until he really took liberties that Spartacus fired back with KO shots. We'll see him one more time and that should be interesting. Oh, and just in case neither Sebastian or Phil tell you, since I'm getting this review in first, Spartacus was Jacques Pêcheur. Go and google him and Gaston Glock together. You'll get a good story out of it.

SR: 1 fall match going about 20 minutes. It‘s Spartacus, baby. Spartacus really had a movie star look and very good build not to mention his amazing entrance gear. Also, about 37 years after this, he was a hitman and arrested after he tried bashing in the face of a famous gunmaker. Husberg looks about like if a middle aged investment banker randomly decided to get in the ring, and to my knowledge, never tried murdering anyone. This was a bout in a small venue in front of a receptive crowd. It was effective but also a bit minimalist and I felt Spartacus belonged on a bigger stage, something like a stadium if you will. Spartacus had some very stylized grappling and a unique way to do  things and I got the sense he could be a fantastic worker in the vein of a Franz van Buyten. Husberg was one of these violent heels who didn‘t do much fancy  but throw hard fists and forearms to his opponent. The bout escalated early with Husberg throwing some hard shots including a cool knee to the ribs while he held Spartacus in a keylock, but they slowed down, and I didn‘t get the sense Husberg was that great an opponent to showcase Spartacuses grappling. It was a good matchup though.

PAS: Spartcus was a bunch of fun to watch, I loved how he kept flipping onto his feet whenever Husberg tried to beal him, or monkey flip him. It was a great bit of shtick which never got tired or had diminishing returns. Spartacus also had some nifty counters on the mat, and he felt a little like a lucha maestro in a trios match where he wouldn't be able to really show his goods, but you could tell they were there. Finish was pretty awesome as Spartacus got tired of Husberg's shit and hit him with forearms including a hooking forearm which dropped him like a Joe Frazier left. Fun stuff, and I hope we get to see more Spartacus.